Pandaemonium: Chapter 26
If I owned these characters I wouldn't be writing this-obviously. Instead I'd be torturing all of us via Cassie's Tumblr and Twitter.
A short note about the speech. I have never written a speech before, so this is a new thing I'm trying. I'm writing it as I think it ought to be said, so certain things may be italicized, boldfaced, or underlined for emphasis; furthermore, I will be including certain physical actions (like longer pauses or gesticulations) in brackets. I watched a number of political speeches on the interwebz, so I apologize if I did this entirely incorrectly. Please let me know how it turned out!
A weak wane light filtered through the window. As it gently danced upon Alec's eyelids, he was roused from a deep peaceful sleep to join the waking world. Pulling himself upright on the bed, Alec took a moment to take in his surroundings. True, this morning was better than most-thanks mostly to the night before-but that didn't mean that the day would be any good. In fact, Alec was quite dreadful that the day's events would be rather frightening. This was a reasonable considering this was the day where he was announced to the entirety of Idris. This was the day everything became official.
After his regular morning routine, Alec sat down in his solar, only to be welcomed by a committee of people under the direction of Carstairs. He was quickly informed of two things: first, that he would not be leaving his chambers for the day while the committee-who turned out to be stylists and beauticians-took control of making him look nice, and second, that he would be required to have the speech memorized by the night.
It was no earlier than 8 in the morning, and the day was guaranteed to be a disaster. As soon as Carstairs had informed him of his fate for the day, the speech was thrust into his hands, and then he was rather unceremoniously carted to the bathroom where the beautification began.
To make things succinct, it will be said that Alec was reluctantly forced into a number of painful experience that involved wax, razors, scissors, some weird paste stuff, and far too much fabric for his own good.
While Alec was suffering through that, Magnus was sitting in his office humming happily. Well that is until Jace walked in.
Magnus huffed and rolled his eyes. "Well Goldilocks," he asked, "what can I do for you?"
Jace walked up to Magnus and pushed him up against the wall, glowering.
Magnus smiled wryly and said, "Well, well Goldilocks, I didn't think you were into this stuff, and while you're not so bad looking yourself, I'm unfortunately taken. Sorry about that."
Jace's face stiffened as he growled and said, "This is your only warning. Hurt him and you're dead. You so much as make him miserable once, and you'll be six feet under before you can even blink."
With that he backed off of Magnus and walked away.
Magnus was phased for a minute total. Then, he brushed the dust off of his clothes and then resumed humming happily.
Naturally he was interrupted again by another visitor. This time it was Izzy.
She came in bubbling and excited. She rushed over and embraced Magnus, telling him that he was forgiven and that they had so many things to talk about (specifically he just needed to help her decide what to wear that night). While it wasn't exactly what Magnus had planned on doing the entire day, he was happy for the change of setting and for pace. After all, at this point in the day, he'd spent most of the time staring into space thinking of Alec and just how gorgeous they would make him look.
As luck would have it, the process with Izzy took the remainder of the day. She was perhaps the most indecisive, fashionably adept, woman he had ever met. The difficulty she faced deciding on what to wear-bright colors v. muted tones? short v. long? how much cleavage to show? how much leg? Strapless? No back?-could have been equated to the gordian knot. Luckily, Magnus was more than adept at playing the role of Alexander (and he did chuckle a bit at thought of him being Alexander...) and breaking free of the knot. By the time he was done, Izzy looked ravishing, to say the least. She ended up picking a slimming, sheer, long, black dress that had no back, but wasn't terribly low cut. It covered most of her legs too. She matched it with a delicate set of pearls for her ears and neck, along with long black opera gloves. She simply glowed.
Unfortunately that gave Magnus only an hour to prepare himself. And while an hour for most people would be a reasonable amount of time, especially since that individual was a male and not the person who was being honored at the festivities; however, Magnus Bane was certainly not most people, and while the festivities may not intentionally be about him, they had a tendency to become about him in the end anyway.
So, in a flurry of fabric mixed with some glitter and a whole lot of other stuff flying in the air, Magnus got prepared in an hour. Dressed in a sleek black outfit that matched his skin tone well, he scintillated quite a lot and seemed to reflect all the light in the room around him, no matter how dim it was. Of course anyone who walked past him would be hit with a wave of olfactory bliss that was his sandalwood scent.
By the time all of the madness was done, it was time for the party. Everyone had already assembled in the grand ballroom of the palace and was milling around, drinks in hand, trying to act in a somewhat gregarious manner. Most of these people either didn't know each other or had some antipathetic feelings, but that was just politics. Magnus quickly grabbed himself something fruity smelling and started to join the general false-faced congenial hand shaking that was going on. As he flittered around, he noticed there were a number of people that cleaned up nicely; as it turned out, Simon cleaned up somewhat nicely and Clary could work the green shimmery dress pretty well. It didn't help that Jace was ogling at her the entire time, though that may have been the point.
After what seemed like an eternity-though was really no more than half an hour-the band finally stopped playing the morose Mahler-esque tune and everyone heard the loud with the booming voice crash his staff on the floor three times and say: "Presenting, His Royal Highness Alexander Gideon Lightwood, Crown Prince of Idris."
Alec walked in on the balcony. Magnus was taken a back at how nicely he had transformed. It was even better than anything he or Izzy could do, and since they were the best, it was saying something.
He was dressed in the finest clothing Magnus had ever seen. The silk shone finely on his body, and they had somehow convinced him to put on a little make up because his face was incandescent like the moon. The real transformation though, was in his hair. Somehow the wild beast that was had not only been tamed but actually put to some good use. It had been cut, combed, gelled, and who knows what else to part nicely at the front and then go back. It was a very princely cut and looked well suited to have a crown on top. Of course Magnus hated it the moment he saw it. This Alexander was too porcelain. He looked like a doll just waiting to be fractured-pretty to look at, dangerous to touch. Alec with the messy hair, Alec with the natural blush, that was the Alec that Magnus loved, even though a crown would just get lost under the unruly mop of hair.
The only thing that had stayed the same were Alec's eyes. The blue orbs darted back and forth in their sockets searching for something-for anything to calm him down from the sight before him. Magnus always felt at home in a crowd. Milling around hundreds of people and being the center of their attention was entirely natural to him. Alec on the other hand would have preferred a library with a hundred books to a hundred people. Watching him interact with a few people was thoroughly awkward. A speech to a hundred people? Magnus' stomach sank with the feeling of impending doom. Part of him wanted to rush up the stairs to the balcony, kiss Alec and pull him away from this entire uncomfortable endeavor. But he knew that wasn't an option.
So instead, he-and every other person in the room (including some unfriendly faces)-stared intently at Alec and waited for him to say something.
To his credit, Alec was in control. Before walking out onto the balcony, he was utterly convinced that he would do the following three things (in no particular order): [1] Wet himself
[2] Shat himself
[3] Breakdown uncontrollably crying whilst in the fetal position
It had been approximately 15 seconds since walking out, and he didn't have the slightest inkling that either of the three would be occurring. Okay, so maybe he felt a little weak at the knees, but that was nothing that couldn't be handled. His eyes darted back and forth searching-searching for a familiar face that he could look into and feel comfortable. Well not just any familiar face, a specific familiar face. A caramel colored face with almond eyes the color of gold flecked forests. Unfortunately, he saw nothing like that in the crowd. He was, however, able to spot a couple of familiar faces; Jace cleaned up rather nicely, Alec noted somewhat wryly; even Simon-who looked more uncomfortable than Alec-seemed to put in some effort to look good for the evening.
Was it what Alec was looking for? No, obviously. But it was enough.
Alec remembered what Carstairs had told him just prior to leaving his chambers: "Relax. Remember, they don't care about the middle-only about the beginning and the end. Start strong and finish stronger. They'll love it and then it's over."
Alec stared out into the crowd again for a second, hoping to catch Magnus, but he didn't succeed. All he succeeded in finding were the cold black eyes of Baron von Morgenstern. For once that look didn't make him scared; instead, it filled him with resolve; resolve to make this speech so good that the man would back off.
Alec drew himself up to this full height. He rolled his shoulders back just gently. He lifted his chin so that he was staring directly in front of him at the audience. He inhaled deeply with his nose, allowing his lungs to fill to their maximum capacity. Then with a pause for effect, and a voice that was so strong and powerful that he wasn't even sure it belonged to him, Alec began:
"Your Majesty; My Lords; My Ladies; Honored Guests; Friends, and Fellow Countrymen of Idris, I...Alexander Gideon Lightwood...humbly and graciously accept the role of your Crown Prince. [Pause]. And that is what this role is. I am not the Crown Prince. Nor am I my Crown Prince. I am yourCrown Prince. That is the nature of this role-of any role in government. I exist-we exist solely to serve the people.
To some of you, this comes as a surprise, I'm sure. I do not blame you. For far too long you've lived under the wrong impression. You've lived under the impression that The Crown is a self-serving entity designed to perpetuate its power over the years, designed to accumulate vast amounts of wealth, designed to expand indefinitely to the world beyond. And that is a lie.
We forget our history. We forget even ourselves at times. We have come very far from our humble beginnings, yes, but we must never forget why we were put on this earth. We are not here to keep our power in perpetuity; we are not here to accumulate vast amounts of wealth; we are not designed to expand indefinitely to the world beyond. We are here to serve the people who once, hundreds of years ago, asked us to take this position. It is by their grace that we rule, and it is with their permission that I stand before you today. To forget them is to forget ourselves. And who are we once we have forgotten ourselves? What purpose do we serve?
The people we serve; the people who put us in this place, they have suffered through injustice after injustice after injustice. Our mandate is multifaceted, but the one feature that presents itself above all others is justice. The justice that we owe to those people. The justice that we have taken away time and time again.
Today we stand at the brink of two very different realities. In front of us lies the great chasm of despair. The chasm we will fall into if we continue to let the virtue of justice fall to the side. Beyond is a dark pit, cold and uncaring. What lies beyond is nothing short of chaos, a gaping pit waiting to swallow us all. [Pause] But we stand at the brink. We have not fallen over the edge...yet. We can take a step back today. We can return to the place we originally came from, the place where we belong, together. A land that was the greatest in the world. A land that was the envy of the globe. A land where justice is the ruling principle, not power.
We have a choice. Return to what was or trudge on to our very end. The choice is simple. We will step back from the abyss and become what we once were.
The first time I saw Alicante was at sunrise on a hill outside of the city. As the sun became newly ascendant, its rays gently caressed the top of the glass spires of this city. Then with golden brilliance, the sky burst forth with light and shimmered in the sun's powerful glory.
It is time to become that ascendant sun again. We will hit the spires of Alicante with light and illuminate the entire valley. Nary a shadow will hide from our ascendant glory. Evil and injustice cannot hide in the shadows from a light so powerful, a light so bright. Even the woods will be lightened. [Pausing and chuckling with nervous laughter] Perhaps you could call them Lightwoods. [Pauses as the audience chortles]
Our sunrise is now. So I ask of you today one thing and one thing only: rise with me. Rise with me and shed light and justice across our country. Let no shadow stay in the dark. Together we can push back the darkness and walk away from the brink. Together we can do what we set out to do all those years ago: serve the people."
Magnus just stared. His mouth was agape, but then again so was everyone else's. This was not the prince they knew. The one who preferred books to people, the one who preferred to remain unnoticed in the shadows. How was it that the boy-no the man-who loved the shadows, and took solace in them, could possibly be calling everyone to eradicate those very shadows in favor of an abstract term such as justice. It just made no sense. It was the greatest transformation he had ever seen. Yet it wasn't exactly what he wanted. This Alec was too princely. Too much of a politician. Sure he was fighting for justice, which was very Alec-like, but the way that had all come out was so powerful, so effective, it just couldn't have been him.
By the time Magnus had closed his mouth, he realized that everyone else was clapping. Clapping was an understatement. They were cheering. Roaring really. It was like children had just been fed mounds and mounds of candy. They couldn't stop screaming. He noticed, with a certain amount of jealousy, that a number of ladies were eyeing Alec a bit coyly.
Alec let out a deep breath and relaxed his body. He slowly started to move down the staircase. His mind was so clouded he barely noticed the noise emanating from his surroundings. The cheering couldn't break the fog in his head. At the foot of the staircase that lead down from the balcony, he was met by Izzy. He took her arm, noting that for once she was appropriately dressed, and walked into the crowd.
The band started crooning again, but their noises were lost in the applause.
Somewhere in a corner filled with shadows, a man with white hair and dark eyes frowned sternly.